I'll cut to the chase ' "Holy Spider" is a tough watch. Not because it's a bad film ... far from it. Director Ali Abbasi has created a rich, effective thriller that shudders with dramatic tension. It's difficult to watch because it grabs you by the throat, forcing you to confront … | Continue reading
In "The Boys," Karen Fukuhara's role as the regenerative, super-strong Kimiko initially drew some criticism for how it seemed to relegate another Japanese actress to a non-speaking part, rendering her non-verbal in the manner of Rinko Kikuchi's character in both "Babel" and "The … | Continue reading
If you're just now joining us on the Tom Cruise whistle-stop movie tour, the film we had all been calling "Mission: Impossible 7" since before I can remember now has an official title: "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One." Not only that, it now has an official trailer. … | Continue reading
Peter Weir's "Witness" is a firmly established classic now, but it took critics by surprise in 1985 for a lot of valid reasons. Though Harrison Ford was a bona fide movie star thanks to the "Star Wars" saga and two go-rounds as Indiana Jones, he had yet to shed the matinee idol s … | Continue reading
Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, moviegoers have been conditioned to stick around after the credits of superhero movies such as "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" to get a little extra treat before leaving the theater. Whether it's a tease of what's coming next … | Continue reading
Nowadays, if you make a list of the greatest sports movies of all time and you don't put "Hoosiers" on it, you'll most certainly receive a cavalcade of flack. The picture about a small town Indiana high school basketball team pulls those inspirational sports story heartstrings be … | Continue reading
Spoiler alert! In the "Star Wars" franchise, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. Shocking, isn't it? The secret has been out there for over 42 years now, ever since "The Empire Strikes Back" made its way into theaters on May 21, 1980. But imagine you're Mark Hamill, the actor … | Continue reading
"Stranger Things" is back, and it's bigger than ever. The Netflix juggernaut will air seven episodes of its super-sized fourth season on May 27, 2022, with the last two movie-length chapters dropping July 1. The new season includes more fresh faces than ever as our favorite chara … | Continue reading
Hawkeye has a new target: the opioid crisis. Jeremy Renner will appear in an upcoming film as David Armstrong, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who was instrumental in uncovering the involvement of billionaire pharmaceutical chief Richard Sackler and his family in the U.S. opi … | Continue reading
(The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fan-made productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.) In … | Continue reading
"Stranger Things 4" doesn't have an original thought in its head, and I say that in the most friendly way possible. I am not mocking the show for its unoriginality; I am merely stating it as fact. Indeed, I'd argue that if you pressed creators The Duffer Brothers on this, they'd … | Continue reading
If you want my advice about the third season of "Barry" on HBO, it's very simple: watch the first two seasons of "Barry" first. There are three reasons. First, the show's first two seasons, like this one, each have eight episodes, all roughly 25-30 minutes, making for a fairly qu … | Continue reading
If you love George Miller, or if you just want to see Idris Elba as a genie in a bathrobe opposite Tilda Swinton, you'll undoubtedly want to see the new film "Three Thousand Years of Longing." And just in case the "playing only in movie theaters" tag at the end of the first trail … | Continue reading
From the Runaways to the Teen Titans, I'm a sucker for superhero teen drama in comic book form, so there are few MCU possibilities I find quite as thrilling as bringing in the Young Avengers. The studio has been slowly laying the groundwork to bring these teens together and hones … | Continue reading
When the first trailer for "Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers" dropped earlier this year, it was bursting at the seams with Easter eggs. Based on that, one could assume that there would be a good amount of cameos and references throughout the reboot/sequel/comeback. However, once it w … | Continue reading
(Welcome to TV, Interrupted, a series where the /Film team remembers, eulogizes, and makes a case for the revival of TV shows we loved that were canceled far too soon.) "Pushing Daisies" suffered from the same "problem" as other equally complex movies and TV series — it was hard … | Continue reading
Last night, Pete Davidson bid farewell to "Saturday Night Live" with one of his signature appearances at the Weekend Update desk. It was pretty much the only thing Davidson did for the show's 47th season finale, but apparently that's because a pre-recorded sketch somehow ended up … | Continue reading
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.) The Show: "Veep" Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max The Pitch: In most American television, politicians are either v … | Continue reading
This weekend brought the 47th season finale of "Saturday Night Live" to the airwaves. With "Russian Doll" star Natasha Lyonne set to host, it seemed like this was going to be your average season finale for the late night sketch series. But those expectations became something else … | Continue reading
Featuring great performances from its two incredibly bearded leading men, and bosting a twist that offers something truly unique to the true crime genre, "The Stranger" takes loose inspiration from a true story to deliver a bleak yet subdued thriller. Sadly, the film banks everyt … | Continue reading
How would a humble animal perceive humanity? "EO" attempts to answer that question by following a lowly donkey through the ups and downs of his life. Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, "EO" is based on the 1966 Robert Bresson film, "Au Hasard Balthazar." Much like its predecessor, it … | Continue reading
In news that should surprise no one, a Marvel Studios film -- in this case, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" -- is holding steady at the top of the box office after three weekends. The Sam Raimi-directed sequel is currently playing in 4,534 theaters nationwide. "Down … | Continue reading
A Gerard Butler-led vigilante thriller is getting a sequel over a decade after its release: Village Roadshow Pictures has announced it's working on a follow-up to 2009's "Law Abiding Citizen." If you've forgotten about "Law Abiding Citizen" amidst the onslaught of similar Butler- … | Continue reading
News has broken about the biggest deal out of Cannes 2022 so far -- and surprise, surprise, it's a Netflix acquisition. Variety is reporting that the streamer has nabbed global rights for a movie called "Pain Hustlers" in a deal that may have cost as much as $50 million. "Pain Hu … | Continue reading
Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins is set to play controversial but foundational psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in an upcoming fantasy-tinged film that tells a fictionalized story about the end of Freud's life (per The Hollywood Reporter). The news comes from Cannes, where the film "Freud … | Continue reading
When your sci-fi horror series is built around mysterious conspiracies and shocking revelations, it's important to keep a tight ship. That's probably why the Duffer Brothers only share the secrets of "Stranger Things" with trusted cast members ... And occasionally the manufacture … | Continue reading
"Tringle of Sadness" is an utterly hilarious satire told in three acts, each more ludicrous than the last. For his English-language debut, Ruben Östlund brings together a fantastic ensemble cast to tell a story with biting commentary on class that explodes into absolute chaos. Th … | Continue reading
There are few movies of any kind that can produce as much affection, from just about every sort of movie lover there is, as "Alien." Ridley Scott's 1979 masterwork blends sci-fi and horror together in a way that remains undefeated more than 40 years later. "Aliens" is often regar … | Continue reading
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.) The Movie: "The Passion of Joan of Arc" Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max, The Criterion Channel The Pitch: "The Pa … | Continue reading
"Star Trek: Voyager" season 5, episode 20, "Think Tank" (first aired March 31, 1999) saw a dangerous cadre of bounty hunters attack the ship and capture the crew, and in the midst of battle, U.S.S. Voyager is visited by a mysterious and soft-spoken alien named Kurros (Jason Alexa … | Continue reading
"The Phantom Menace" isn't the most popular "Star Wars" movie, and in a lot of ways, the long-awaited prequel and first theatrical series entry since "Return of the Jedi" wound up being upstaged by "The Matrix" and its revolutionary action techniques in 1999. However, despite its … | Continue reading
George Miller is one of our greatest maximalist filmmakers, capable of taking the smallest idea and turning it into a wonderfully bonkers, visually striking movie. For his follow-up to "Mad Max: Fury Road," Miller gives us a throwback fairy tale that feels more like his follow-up … | Continue reading
HBO's "The Wire" recalibrated the way audiences engaged with TV drama, not just through its sly sociopolitical commentary dressed up as cop procedural, but in the ways that its characters amplified its themes. One of the stauncher characters on the cop side was Det. William "Bunk … | Continue reading
Until recent years, news coverage of Johnny Depp mostly focused on his abilities as a character actor and the staggering success of "The Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. At the moment, Depp can only be seen in live streams of his defamation trial against Amber Heard, and the … | Continue reading
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has all the trappings of a great wuxia film. Loosely adapted from a series of novels by Wang Dulu, the movie features a legendary sword, doomed lovers, and martial arts duels. Martial arts legend Cheng Pei-pei stars alongside Michelle Yeoh. The fi … | Continue reading
Men will literally supernaturally harass a grieving woman in a small English town instead of going to therapy. Alex Garland's "Men" follows Harper (Jessie Buckley), a widow trying to heal and rediscover herself in an isolated house in the English countryside following her husband … | Continue reading
There are two great films in which Kal Penn plays a pot-smoker who rebels against leading a life his parents would readily approve of. One of them is 2004's "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," and the other is 2006's "The Namesake," based on the 2003 novel by Pulitzer Prize winn … | Continue reading
If there's one thing you can count on in this world, it's that Samuel L. Jackson will always find a way to be a badass. Hero or villain, each character the actor plays inherits his steely charisma, making them endlessly cool whether they see any action or not. This was especially … | Continue reading
Peter Jackson's career really took a dramatic turn with the production of "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" in 2001. A big-budget studio production, "Lord of the Rings" was a special effects laden adaptation that brought the J.R.R. Tolkien's epic books to life. It w … | Continue reading
While at this point it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing Steve Rogers, there was a time when Chris Evans' MCU casting was actually quite controversial. He had portrayed Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, in two less than stellar "Fantastic Four" movies for Fox, and many … | Continue reading
In 1985, Amy Heckerling was one of the most promising comedy directors working in Hollywood. Although most critics didn't get it at the time, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was one of the defining teen comedies of the era. Her follow-up, "Johnny Dangerously," also missed with cri … | Continue reading
Is it sacrilege to say I like Arnold Schwarzenegger as a comedy actor more than an action star? Out of all his movies, the ones I've revisited the most are either comedies ("Twins," "Kindergarten Cop"), films that satirize the tropes of Arnold's shoot-em-ups ("Last Action Hero"), … | Continue reading
In a shock to absolutely no one, it was announced Friday that following the end of tonight's 47th season finale of "Saturday Night Live," longtime cast members Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney, and Aidy Bryant would all be saying farewell. All four cast members represent … | Continue reading
Alex Proyas has been MIA from the feature film scene since 2016's "Gods of Egypt," which fizzled at the box office despite its large scale and impressive cast, and that's not great. Proyas has turned in masterpieces and head-scratchers over the last 30 years, but one thing is alw … | Continue reading
It has been three long years since Mondo released their first high-end set of figures based on the highly popular, absurd sci-fi comedy "Rick and Morty." Something happened between 2019 and this year of our lord 2022, but I can't quite remember what world-changing event took plac … | Continue reading
Lupita Nyong'o has dropped out of the upcoming Apple TV+ series, "Lady in the Lake," based on the New York Times-bestselling crime novel by Laura Lippman. Nyong'o was set to costar opposite Natalie Portman, who is also executive producing the series, which is currently in product … | Continue reading
Aaron and Adam Nee's "The Lost City" recently made an unexpectedly large splash in theaters, earning over $170 million worldwide and generally pleasing critics. The film is about a romance author (Sandra Bullock) who only turned to writing archeology-themed smut when her interest … | Continue reading
The "Dark Knight" trilogy is one of the most critically acclaimed pieces of superhero cinema. In a sea of actors who have previously donned the cape, Christian Bale's Batman stands out for his compelling portrayal of both Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting vigilante self. He's th … | Continue reading